(Closed) Cantigny Wedding Reception

I visited Cantigny in Wheaton the other day and thought it was beautiful! I really liked the Red Oak room for my reception and Cantigny Park for the ceremony. I am curious if anyone else had their weddings at these locations and how they liked the service. Thanks!!!! : )

I REALLY wanted to have my wedding and reception at Cantigny Park. The grounds are amazing and would be fantastic for an outdoor ceremony and all the pictures. But, I really had problems with them in coordinating a date. We met with their coordinator awhile back and she said they hadn’t opened their 2010 calendar yet, but to try back in about a month. After a month they said they weren’t ready and to try in another month. That went on for about 3 months, and I was getting antsy to book a place, so my fiance called pretty upset. What he then found out is that private events like weddings get last billing by the park. When they put together their calendar, they first book their annual events, they then open up the calendar to their corporate sponsors. After all those events are booked then and only then do they open it up to private events such as weddings. By the time their events and corporate events were done, there were no Fridays or Saturdays in June available. We probably could have changed the month we wanted to get married, but I was really set on the timing for a variety of reasons. I was pretty sad at the time. I thought the coordinator handled the whole thing very unprofessionaly in leading us on for all those months when she could have told us the process and the risk we were taking with date availability when we expressed our interest in having our wedding there. In the end, I was glad we didn’t go that route, because if it is that difficult to secure a date, what will the actual event be like?

I had a friend get married there a few months ago in Le Jardin – she originally wanted to get married in August but wound up having to choose between a Sunday in June or a Sunday in September – those were the only open dates. Their pictures on the grounds turned out really nice – they have super cute ones on the tanks and everything.

As a wedding goer, the room was really nice and the food was very good for the price. The only down sides were there was a huge farmers market type thing the day of the wedding which made parking difficult, and they were super strict about not opening the room till exactly on the hour (so we had a bunch of people standing outside in the mist). Also since the park closes at dusk it’s difficult for any late comers to get into the park grounds (my fiance had to go through the one way exit) because they close the iron gates.

We also looked at Cantigny- the space is absolutely gorgeous! I was a bit put off when we asked about setting up a tasting. The coordinator tersely informed us that, “We don’t do tastings. We have an EXCELLENT reputation. Why don’t you just have dinner here some night?” Silly me, I had thought tastings were normal for venues. That having been said, I’ve never heard anyone say anything bad about their actual weddings (scheduling conflicts notwithstanding). In the end, we wanted something a little less traditional and moved away from the country club option, but if that’s the feel you want, you’d be hard pressed to find nicer grounds.